On Tuesday Chithalapakkam, a Chennai suburb, bid a silent au revoir to Raghavendran Ganesan, the 31-yearold software engineer, who lost his life in the bomb blast by the suicide bombers of ISIS at Brussels on March 22. Raghavendran died while travelling in the Metro on his way to office when one of the ISIS terrorists blew himself up. He leaves behind his wife Vaishali and a one-month old daughter.
Earlier in the day, the mortal remains of Raghavendran was brought to Chennai by air. His parents Ganeshan and Annapoorni and younger brother Chandrasekhar accompanied the body from Brussels. Raghavendran had chatted with his mother over Skype immediately after reports about the suicide bomb attacks in Brussels airport were flashed in TV screens across the world.
According to one of his relatives, a video footage showed Raghavendran sitting close to the suicide bomber in the Metro when the explosion occurred. last time he made it to Chennai was in February to drop his pregnant wife home. The identity of Raghavendran was established through DNA tests. The body which was kept in the Military Hospital in Brussels was handed over to the family members on Monday.
Close family members maintained silence throughout the day even as condolence messages poured in from all walks of life including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. “A young life, full of hope and promise was cut short by mindless violence. Condolences to family of Raghavendran, who lost his life in Brussels,” tweeted Prime Minister Modi who is expected to join the memorial service at Brussels on Wednesday for the 35 people who died in the blasts to be held in the capital of Belgium on Wednesday.
But there was an eerie silence in the national discourse from where the names of Raghavendran and that of the ISIS terrorists were conveniently blacked out.
“Though he was not a national hero who could match the eminence of the JNU and University of Hyderabad rebels, Raghavendran was an Indian who was working abroad for his family and the country. Our intelligentsia failed miserably to recognise and respect Raghavendran’s soul. Had he raised some anti-India slogans at least a couple of times in his life time, the national media would have celebrated his death,” said one of the close relations of the family.
Ramesh Sethuraman, corporate head of a leading IT company in Chennai expressed shock over the silence of the civil society about the dastardly act. “Raghavendran should be a national hero. The silence of the civil society and the media exposes the hypocrisy of the media and the leftists who are always in the look out for instances to gain political mileage. They wont condemn the ISIS,” said Sethuraman.
S Kalyanaraman, former Asian Development Banker called for ‘social accountability of corporates which depute their employees to areas vulnerable to terror attacks.
“Infosys has become a global MNC. So, the company exposes its employees to world-wide Jihadi terror risks. What is the social responsibility of Infosys which doles out Bharatiya wealth to a commie PollockIJ”, asked Kalyanaraman in his tweet referring to the recent controversy involving Rohan Murthy, son of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy..